Units of Hyundai Motor’s compact vehicle Casper ready for shipment are sparsely parked at Gwangju Global Motors, a joint venture manufacturing plant between the carmaker and the Gwangju city government on Tuesday. Located in South Korea’s southwestern city of Gwangju, the plant is capable of manufacturing 200 vehicles a day, but suspended its operations due to a prolonged supply shortage triggered by the Shanghai lockdown.

A video indicating that a Ukrainian soldier was saved from gun shots by a Samsung Galaxy smartphone came under the spotlight on Tuesday. Posted on social networking platform Reddit, the video shows the Ukrainian soldier reaching into his pocket to pull out what appears to be a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE or Samsung Galaxy S20. The smartphone has a bullet lodged in it, which appears to have protected the soldier from gun shots. The video didn‘t carry any text that illustrates what really happe

A takeover battle for SsangYong Motor, the debt-ridden carmaker owned by India’s Mahindra Group, has kicked off between three rival bidders: two medium-sized enterprises and a private equity firm. KG Group, Ssangbangwool and Pavilion PE each submitted a letter of intent to acquire SsangYong Motor to the lead manager of the deal, EY Hanyoung, industry sources said Tuesday. After South Korean electric carmaker Edison Motors’ deal to purchase SsangYong Motor went up in smoke, Seoul Ba

Large retailers including Hanwha and Shinsegae are keen to jump into the e-commerce market for designer brands as existing online platforms are struggling to beat off a counterfeit luxury goods scandal. Online shopping malls for designer brands such as Mustit, Balaan and Trenbe have enjoyed a boom in Korea by offering convenience and prices lower than department stores or duty-free shops to the country’s growing number of luxury consumers who spent more during the pandemic. These online

South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air said Tuesday that it has celebrated its 50th anniversary of operating American routes, stressing its role of bridging the countries both physically and culturally. A Korean Air Boeing 707 was the first aircraft operated by a Korean airliner to fly across the Pacific on April 19, 1972. It then made stops in Tokyo and Honolulu before landing in Los Angeles, officials recalled.　 The airline had two destinations in the US — LA and Honolulu —

LG Group’s IT solutions unit LG CNS said Tuesday that it has joined the government’s new smart farming project to build an artificial intelligence-based platform that offers the ultimate guidelines for more efficient and high-yield farming. The project, launched by the Agriculture Ministry and the local government of South Jeolla Province, aims to create a 543,000 square-meter intelligent farm land in the rural city of Naju, some 355 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2023. Unlike mos

Samsung Electronics is offering free pickup and delivery repair service for customers in war-torn Ukraine. According to its Ukraine unit on Tuesday, the Korean tech giant will pick up mobile devices to be repaired for customers living in areas where its service centers cannot be operated, and then deliver the devices to their homes. All of Samsung’s mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, are subject to the pickup service, with all costs being covered by the com

Hite Jinro Co., South Korea's leading beverage company, said Tuesday it will strengthen marketing efforts in Japan to boost sales of the traditional Korean liquor soju. Japan is Hite Jinro's second-biggest market for soju after the United States. Soju exports rebounded in 2020 and jumped 27 percent in 2021 from a year earlier amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement. The company didn't provide the value of exports. Hite Jinro advanced to Japan with its soju products in Novembe

Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Tuesday it will open five new international routes next month as the easing of travel restrictions unleashes pent-up demand. On Jan. 23, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement with Saipan, a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. Air Busan added one more flight on the Busan-Saipan route from Mar

Hyundai Motor is issuing community-based non-fungible tokens as part of efforts to enhance its brand experience and customer community, becoming the first carmaker to enter the community NFT marketplace, the South Korean auto giant said Monday. Hyundai released a short film introducing the “Metamobility Universe,” the carmaker’s NFT universe concept that was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The film, featuring Meta Kongz, a popular NFT gorilla cha

With the return of sample food tasting and lipstick testing, retailers expect a business boost in stores

New breakthrough expected to help upgrade interventional therapies

Local data replication solution provider ArkData said Monday that it has successfully completed the development of a disaster recovery system for Kyungpook National University in the southeastern city of Daegu. The project aims to protect the school’s student database and prevent business disruptions caused by data center failures or natural disasters. ArkData, specialized in data replication and integration, provides business continuity planning and disaster recovery solutions. The c

SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence-powered digital remastering technology Supernova is going global in a new partnership with France’s Verimatrix, a leading provider of content security solutions, the Korean telecom giant said Monday. Supernova aims to recreate digital content by using AI-powered colorization tool, called DeOldify. The technology has already been widely used in remastering classic content or restoring historic records here. Its smartphone app made its global debu

CJ Logistics, South Korea’s largest logistics firm, said Sunday that it is set to raise up to 740 billion won ($602 million) to construct major fulfillment centers in the metropolitan area, accelerating its e-commerce business. The firm will first raise 250 billion won in cash with Samsung SRA Asset Management, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Group, and plans to borrow the remaining 490 billion won from other financial companies. The fund will be operated for eight years until